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Homeschooling LD Kids Over Summer Break

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Children tend to lose the equivalent of at least one month of educational instruction over their three-month summer break from school. This number was apparently reached by having children take standardized test before they left school in the spring, and when they returned to school in the fall. The comparison of test scores was a research synthesis done in 1996 by Cooper et al.

Children with learning disabilities are already behind their peers academically, and research conducted by Sargent and Fidler (1987) offered evidence that they needed summer learning activities. There are states that mandate programs beyond the regular school year for students with learning disabilities because they are cognizant of the need for continuous instruction of children with learning disabilities according to Katsiyannis 1991.

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Image may be NSFW.
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The public schools in our area no longer offers traditional summer school apparently, because of a lack of funding. Other districts may offer summer school, but parents must pay the full cost of the program, which can be considerable when you consider that you also must provide transportation there, and home.

A factor, which may contribute to the learning disabilities, is the nurturing many of our adopted children, failed to receive at very young ages, before coming to our forever families. Research indicates that a lack of appropriate vitamins, minerals, and overall nutrition before birth and during early childhood may cause a child’s IQ to be 20 points less.

We have a thirteen-year-old daughter with an IQ in the 60’s range, so she is considered to have a learning disability. When she attended public school she had an IEP, Individual Education Plan, which allowed for 30 minutes a week of speech therapy, and two hours a day of small-group instruction in language and math, with a special education instructor. She did not receive proper nurturing and nutrition until entering the foster care system when she was three years old. She was also exposed to substance abuse in the home and while in her mother’s womb.

We had a couple of summers that we didn’t have her do any school work, and she lost much of what she had learned over the school year. This seemed to be especially true when she was learning a new concept, such as when she learned how to read or how to multiply. We learned that it is necessary for her to do some work over the summer.

A few years ago, we decided to our daughter needed to be homeschooled. She had begun lying at school, forging my signature on school documents, cheating, and stealing money and other children’s completed work. Since she already has workbooks at home for her various subjects, we have her continue to work in them over the summer, only less. For example, if she usually does three pages of math a day during the school year, for the summer months she does one page a day. She doesn’t do any school during her weeks at summer camp, or during family outing days or holidays.

We’ve been using this method for several years now and it has been quite effective in maintaining her academic knowledge. She doesn’t seem to mind doing the work because she can usually complete it in about an hour, early in the morning, and still have a full day for other activities.

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